I have had some pain in the front of my shoulder, which I've had in the past (years ago), so I'm going through all my usual routines to calm it down. Avoiding what hurts, ice, stretching, lots of rowing, RC work, serratus work...etc.

However, I also have pain in the posterior shoulder, and I've discovered it's specifically during this exercise.

I also feel it during seated cable rows, but oddly not during Hammer Iso Lateral Rows (done unilaterally). Dips also irritate the crap out of it.

Any idea what muscle that is in my shoulder that's irritated? And what to avoid (other than seated rows and dips). Also what to do to help rehab it?

I've also started reintroducing YTWLs into my routine. My PT showed me how to do these years ago, but had me do them laying face down on the floor, and simply raising my arm off the floor and holding the contraction one arm at a time. With a focus on activating only the lower trap, and not the lats/upper traps.

I've done some searching online and see these performed with one arm hanging off a table, or prone on an exercise ball or incline bench two arms at a time. I find I have trouble isolating the lower trap doing it this way, am I doing something wrong?

Main movers in external rotation are the infraspinatus and teres minor, with some assistance from the posterior delt. Since this done while in abduction, supraspinatus should also be active, according to: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21064160

Supraspinatus might be a good place to start (especially if you can do something like lying dumbbell external rotations pain-free) but diagnosing injuries is not so simple.

Main movers in external rotation are the infraspinatus and teres minor, with some assistance from the posterior delt. Since this done while in abduction, supraspinatus should also be active, according to: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21064160

Supraspinatus might be a good place to start (especially if you can do something like lying dumbbell external rotations pain-free) but diagnosing injuries is not so simple.

Cool, thanks. This sounds about right.

I forgot to mention that yes, I can do external rotations (not lying, I do them standing) with my arm in adduction completely pain free.

Results: After external rotation exercise at 0 degrees of abduction, the SUV of the infraspinatus was the highest among all the shoulder muscles (Table1). Interestingly, after external rotation exercise at 90 degrees of abduction, the teres minor showed the highest SUV values in 6 out of 7 subjects (Table1)."

I've had shoulder impingement so many times. You can do the usual shoulder rehab until the cows come home, but unless that pec minor gets loose you could just end up banging your head against the wall.

I've had shoulder impingement so many times. You can do the usual shoulder rehab until the cows come home, but unless that pec minor gets loose you could just end up banging your head against the wall.

I'll try that. My infraspinatus usually turns into a huge painful knot (on both sides) and that typically "fixes" things. Sure enough there was a huge knot on both sides, but after massaging both out over the course of a week or so, that didn't help my right shoulder.

Main movers in external rotation are the infraspinatus and teres minor, with some assistance from the posterior delt. Since this done while in abduction, supraspinatus should also be active, according to: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21064160

Supraspinatus might be a good place to start (especially if you can do something like lying dumbbell external rotations pain-free) but diagnosing injuries is not so simple.

Went to the PT today.

Nailed, itís the supraspinatus. I have poor scapular stability in my right shoulder.

Basically have hammer away at rows, get a lot of lower trap work in. All pressing is out, but I can still somewhat work chest with low standing cable flyes.

I can try push ups, but thereís still some residual inflammation in the front of the shoulder. If that gets aggravated, then stay away from push ups for another week or two.